Jury recommends death penalty for ‘The Boy Next Door Killer’ accused of murdering two women 

A Los Angeles jury has recommended the death sentence for a man dubbed The Boy Next Door Killer.

In August, Michael Gargiulo, 43, was found guilty of murdering 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin in 2001 and 32-year-old Maria Bruno in 2005. 

The jury recommended the death penalty at 1.30pm on Friday after deliberating for more than a day. 

Prosecutors called Gargiulo ‘The Boy Next Door Killer’ because he lived near all of the victims. 

Gargiulo committed his first murder in 1993 when he killed Tricia Pacaccio, 18, outside of her home in Glenview, Illinois.

Gargiulo was 17 years old at the time and was a friend of Pacaccio’s brother. In fact, he lived just around the corner from the family. 

After the murder, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Ashley Ellerin.

Gargiulo lived less than a block away and, on the day they met, allegedly asked if she needed help changing a flat tire.

He became ‘obsessed’ with Ellerin, showing up to her home announced and surveying her from a parked car across the street. 

Ellerin was found stabbed to death in her home in February 2001, hours before she had plans to go out on a date with Ashton Kutcher.

Kutcher testified at trial that when he went to go pick Ellerin up, no one answered the door so he assumed she had stood him up.   

Gargiulo moved, yet again, this time to a gated apartment complex in El Monte – 16 miles away – where he murdered his neighbor, Maria Bruno, in December 2005.

Then, in 2008, he attempted to murder Michelle Murphy, then 26, at her home in Santa Monica.

Murphy testified during the trial’s penalty phase that she lived in fear for years after the attack.  

A judge will sentence Gargiulo in February.  

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more information.